Colts vs. Texans: Spencer Shrader's 53-Yard Dagger Ends Indy's Nine-Game Skid in Week 3

Somebody get the Colts' athletic trainers a game ball. Spencer Shrader spent Sunday afternoon kicking on a cranky groin, then stepped into a 53-yard field goal with 16 seconds left and split the uprights, lifting Indianapolis to a 19-17 win over the Houston Texans at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Just like that, the NFL's longest active losing streak is dead. Nine straight losses, the seven that closed out last season plus an 0-2 start to this one, have been buried, and the Colts (1-2) won for the first time since last November. Houston fell to 0-3 when C.J. Stroud's last-gasp heave drifted out of bounds as time expired, ending the Texans' five-game winning streak in the series.

A Rock Fight, a Reversal and a Ref on a Hot Mic

Nobody will frame this one. Indy's first possession ended with a Daniel Jones fumble, Houston answered by starting a drive at the Colts' 40 and leaving with nothing after a failed fourth down, and the first quarter produced a single Shrader field goal from 39 yards. The Colts finally found a rhythm early in the second, when Jones capped a 12-play, 69-yard march with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Keenan Allen for a 10-0 lead.

Then things got weird. The ensuing kickoff was initially ruled a fumble that would have given Indy the ball at the Houston 28. Replay flipped it, and referee Ronald Torbert, microphone still live, gave his crew a review of his own: "You guys better get your (expletive) together." The building cracked up. Houston got the last laugh on that sequence, though, going 68 yards in 12 plays before Stroud found Foster Moreau from a yard out to make it 10-7.

Shrader answered with a 58-yarder just before halftime, a kick that tied his career long, and added a 37-yarder early in the fourth quarter that capped a 15-play, 51-yard drive lasting 8:33. Reed Blankenship had picked off Jones to start the second half, but Houston, starting that possession at its own 1, went nowhere. Ka'imi Fairbairn's 24-yard field goal made it 16-10.

Then the wheels wobbled. With 4:40 left, Jones put the ball on the turf again, Tommy Togiai recovered at the Houston 46, and seven plays later Woody Marks plunged in from a yard out. With 1:48 left, the Texans led 17-16, their first lead of the afternoon, and Lucas Oil had that familiar here-we-go-again hum.

Shrader, Allen and a Defense That Finally Showed Up

Shrader was the whole show: 4 for 4 on field goals from 39, 58, 37 and 53 yards, plus an extra point, good for 13 of Indy's 19 points. The groin was bad enough that punter Rigoberto Sanchez handled kickoffs, and Shrader still called it one of his best ball-striking days. His theory was pure kicker philosophy, that "sometimes if you slow down a little bit, you actually end up getting a better result because you're smoother" and that the sore leg might have done him a favor. Teammates noticed the grit. "He's as tough as any football player out here," tight end Tyler Warren said.

Allen supplied the only Indianapolis touchdown and a pile of history. That 6-yard score was his first as a Colt, and it pushed him past Hall of Famer Andre Johnson into 12th on the NFL's career receptions list. He finished with six catches for 63 yards and now sits at 1,068 career grabs, two behind Reggie Wayne, who happens to coach the Colts' receivers. Josh Downs added five catches for 77 yards, and Tyler Warren hauled in nine passes.

The real plot twist was the defense. A unit that surrendered 1,029 yards over the first two weeks held Houston to 223. Stroud went 16 of 27 for 167 yards with a touchdown, and the Texans managed 70 rushing yards on 21 carries. DeForest Buckner chipped in 1.5 sacks. On the other side, Will Anderson Jr. was a one-man wrecking crew with 2.5 sacks and three tackles for loss, which only made the Texans' offensive drought more painful.

The Drive That Saved a Season

Here's the thing about this win: the Colts handed it away twice and took it back once, and once was enough. Down 17-16, they got the ball at their own 35 with 1:48 left. Shane Steichen knew exactly the real estate he wanted, explaining afterward, "obviously, you want to get that ball to around the 40, the 35, in there is ideal."

Jones hit Laquon Treadwell over the middle for 20 yards. Jonathan Taylor ground out 5 more. Allen's 5-yard catch on third down came up a yard short of the sticks but parked the ball at the Houston 36, squarely inside Shrader's comfort zone. Snap, hold, kick, exhale. Nine losses' worth of frustration left the building with one swing of a sore leg.

Stats That Matter

• 3-0: Indianapolis lost the turnover battle by three and still won. Jones lost two fumbles and threw an interception.
• 35:13: The Colts' time of possession, built on 71 offensive plays to Houston's 51.
• 2 for 2: Indy's fourth-down conversions. Houston went 0 for 1.
• 223: Total yards for a Houston offense facing a defense that had allowed more than 500 in each of its first two games.
• 68: Rushing yards for Taylor on 23 carries, a grind-it-out day for the Colts' star back.

What It Means: Indy Exhales, Houston Panics

For the Colts, this is less a turnaround than a pulse check that came back positive. The schedule does them no favors, with a trip to London to face Washington next Sunday, and Steichen was already looking across the Atlantic: "To get that win against a division opponent is huge for our football team and now we've got to go to London and try to get that done over there, too."

Houston is the bigger story. The Texans have scored 31, 6 and 17 points in three losses, and an offense with Stroud, David Montgomery and Dalton Schultz managed 17 first downs against a defense that had been a sieve. Stroud didn't sugarcoat it. "These are the types of games we're supposed to win," he said, adding, "there's a lot of things that need to be fixed." DeMeco Ryans' group heads home to face Dallas with the AFC South already slipping away in September.

Closing Take: Happy, Very Happy

Asked to describe the locker room, Steichen didn't reach for a speech. "Happy," he said. "Very happy." After nine straight losses, that's all the poetry Indianapolis needs. The Colts didn't win pretty. They won like their kicker played: wincing, careful and absolutely money when it counted.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press and Colts.com.